Begin Sentences With the Previous Object

Read these sentences:

• The knife is in front of the pot. The glass is behind the dish. The pot is on the left of the glass.

Confusing, right? Each sentence requires a new mental image.

But if we swap the last two sentences:

• The knife is in front of the pot. The pot is on the left of the glass. The glass is behind the dish.

Much better. A single narrative is unfolding across these sentences.

. . . subjects try to integrate each incoming sentence into a single coherent mental model (Ehrlich & Johnson-Laird, 1982, p. 296).

• Ehrlich, K., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1982). Spatial descriptions and referential continuity. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 21(3), 296-306.